by Nathan Cooper
As a college student, I know I am often strapped for cash, specifically at the beginning of the semester when I have to buy new books for all my new classes.
New books are expensive, plain and simple. Used books can save you but you cannot always get them.
The issue isn’t that people are not selling back their books, because they certainly are in order to get back as much money as they can. The problem is that college book publishing companies reissue books every few years to maximize profits.
These books do not need reissuing. A majority of them barely change each time reissuing occurs. I think it’s rather insulting to the intelligence of college students that publishers expect us not to notice that the new issue has been changed so minutely that it is only a page or two different from the prior edition.
Of course, some books, such as those concerning the ever changing field of science might obviously require updating. That is one of the only valid reasons to reissue a book.
I believe this is quite a dastardly method to rip off students. College is already expensive enough without having to buy the eleventh edition of a book for a hundred dollars when the tenth edition is basically the same.
It is not the fault of PJC; colleges across America have the same issue. Since the new edition is out, the publishers stop printing the old one, thus the college cannot require it as a text because it might be difficult to find. The publishers claim they must do this in order to keep making a profit, but do they really have to extort us in such a crooked way?
Maybe college book publishers should be non-profit organizations. At times like these, do we really need to nickel and dime the minds of the future? I think it is much more crucial that learning materials be readily available and affordable. But, I guess it is just more profitable for publishers to say they have to do it, instead of finding an affordable solution.